The blog will offer purely objective and candid analyses for a better understanding of the events that keep happening and that provide dynamism and direction to the flow of the history and development of the human societies. Being a forum, the comments and opinions from readers whether for or against the views expressed in it, are gratefully welcome. Suggestions for improving the blog are welcome.

Monday, December 19, 2016

The Hacking of 2016 American Presidential Elections

December 18, 2016By Saeed QureshiUnlike
other countries, the votes casting by the citizens to elect the American
president doesn’t take place on one day. There is an option of the early voting
that continues until the last day of voting which this years was November
8.It is
perplexing and rather incredible that till the midnight of November 8, the
issue of election hacking had not surfaced as it did later and is still
continuing. The main blame or onus of this hacking episode has fallen on Russia
with focus on the Russian president Vladimir Putin who purportedly ordered for
this hacking to pave way for the Republican candidate Donald Trump to win against
the Democratic Nominee Madam Hillary Clinton.The 2016 elections have been enormously influenced by the
alleged Russian hacking resulting into stealing of thousands of pages of
documents from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington and
made available to the press and the public.In his
last press briefing before the end of his term, held on Friday November 16,
President Obama categorically pointed at the Russia for hacking the Democratic
votes and thus paving way for the victory of the Republican candidate Donlad Trump.He stated
that in the backdrop of reports circulating prior to the planned hacking of the
2016 presidential elections, he warned and asked the Russian president Mr. Vladimir
Putin to “cut it out”. at a
Group of 20 summit meeting in Hangzhou China held in September this year.He conveyed to him
a strong American response in case there was continued effort to influence the
elections or manipulate the votes.He said that he was weighing a mix of public and covert actions against the
Russians during the period of his last 34 days in office, elaborating those
actions as “very costly for them”. However, in his press conference, he stopped short of
revealing those stringent measures that his administration aims at carrying out
against Russian in retaliation. All that he specified was that “Some of it we
will do in a way that they will know, but not everybody will,” However he wants
to do so without setting off an escalating cyber conflict.The
president said that “We did not see further tampering of the election process.
But the leaks of D.N.C. emails, and those of John D. Podesta, the Clinton
campaign manager, continued, because they were already in the hands of
WikiLeaks, which doled them out to an eager news media until the last days of
the campaign.”He outlined that, “Our
goal continues to be to send a clear message to Russia or others not to do this
to us because we can do the stuff to you”. “But it is also important to us to
do that in a thoughtful, methodical way. Some of it, we will do publicly. Some
of it we will do in a way that they know, but not everybody will.”Prior to Mr. Obama’s farewell address to the
press, Hillary Clinton in her
address, on 15 December, toa group of
donors in Manhattan stated that “the hacking
attacks carried out by Russia against her election campaign and the
Democratic National Committee were intended to sabotage the American Democratic
system. She claimed that this hacking was ordered by Vladimir V. Putin.
Castigating Russian president
for personal rancor against her she accused him ofhaving a personal beef against her. “He
had never forgiven me for the accusation she made in 2011, when she was
secretary of state, that parliamentary elections in his country held that year
were rigged.” She exclaimed.There
are is a litany of retaliatory proposals one of which is to cut off leaders in
Mr. Putin’s inner circle from their hidden bank accounts in Europe and Asia. An
option is already there to use sanctions under a year-old executive order to
ban international travel for senior officials in the G.R.U. (Russia’s main
Intelligence Agency) Mr..
Brennan the CIA Director said that he had met with FBI Director James B. Comey,
as well as the Director of National Intelligence, James R. Clapper, and “there
is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature and intent of Russian
interference in our presidential election.”Mr..
McFaul, the former ambassador to Russia, called upon president Obama that he
should focus on “declassification of intelligence to lay bare the Russian
hacking,” during the remaining period of his presidency.Following Mr. Obama’s comments, the Democrats have
demanded further action from president Obama. Representative Adam B. Schiff of
California, the leading Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee called for
“additional economic sanctions along with our allies, and clandestine means of
exacting a cost on the Russians for their flagrant meddling in our election.” He said that “I have little confidence,” that the
incoming president Donald Trump will take the actions necessary to make the
Russians pay any price for the most consequential ‘active measures’ campaign
against us in history.”According to NYT’s
report “The Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) is of the view that the Russian
government deployed computer hackers to help elect Donald J. Trump.”
However, Trump has rejected the findings of the intelligence agencies calling it
as “ridiculous,” He insisted that the hacker may be American, or Chinese, but
that “they have no idea.”It appears that the cold war that was abandoned some
decades from Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev onwards is going to be revived
that might divide the globe into two rival blocs. Even if that doesn’t happen because
of the newly elected American president Donald Trump’s soft corner for Russia,
the friction on other levels such as between the intelligence agencies and
cyber war may erupt.

About Me

Columnist/Analyst/ Former Diplomat.
After obtaining my master’s degrees in Urdu and English literature from Punjab University, I started my career by teaching in a college. Thereafter, I had a stint in the diplomatic service of Pakistan. Finally I landed in journalism, an occupation that I am wedded to for over 20 years now.
I am a strong believer in a civil society and staunch opponent of exploitation in all forms.